1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors for establishing an environmentally sealed multiple contact interconnection with a plurality of conductors and more specifically to the dual molding of connectors having a rigid portion and a deformable sealing portion in a unitary insulative housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 854,719 filed Apr. 16, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,567, a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 696,286, filed Jan. 30, 1985, now abandoned, discloses a multi contact sealed connector suitable for interconnecting a plurality of wires and providing seals to separately seal and isolate each individual terminal or circuit from the other circuits. Therefore, the sealing integrity of a single circuit does not affect the sealing integrity which can be maintained for other circuits or wires. Even if a particular terminal is removed from the connector housing, the remaining terminals and wires would still be sealed. The connector shown in that application employs discreet seals both to maintain sealing integrity with conductors and to maintain sealing integrity at the interface between two separate connector halves.
The use of separate discrete seals in the manner depicted in the above identified patent application means that care must be taken and time expended to handle and account for each seal during assembly of the product. The number of components in each electrical connector invariably adds to its cost of assembly. One technique for limiting the number of components in a sealed connector is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 862,902, filed May 13, 1986, a Continuation In Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 453,327, filed Dec. 27, 1982. These patent applications disclose an electrical connector employing a one piece molded connector having a flexible sealing material chemically joined to a more rigid material of the type suitable for retaining and separating electrical contact terminals of the type normally used in detachable electrical connectors. The one piece housing depicted in the last two mentioned patent applications is formed by a dual molding process in which one material is first injected into a mold followed by the movement of core pins or sleeves to define one or more joining cavities into which the second material can be injected. The disclosure of each of the above mentioned pending patent applications is incorporated herein by reference.